HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL: Vikings rebound to flatten West Warwick

Steve Rogers Daily News staff writer @SportsNDN

Thursday

Sep 19, 2019 at 8:50 PM

After losing to Middletown a week ago, Rogers dominates from start to finish against the Wizards.

NEWPORT — Maybe the Rogers High School football team should schedule more Thursday afternoon games — especially considering they lost by 42 points the previous week. The Vikings certainly looked like a different team Thursday than they did against Middletown last Friday as they hammered West Warwick 34-6 in the Division II-A opener.

Kyshaun Pemberton of the Vikings gained more yards on the ground on the first play of the game than Rogers had compiled over its first competitive six quarters, rambling 80 yards for a touchdown.

Three of Rogers quarterback Max Newsome’s five completions went for touchdowns, including a 72-yarder to Pemberton. Logan Ratcliff caught a 19-yard touchdown pass, Edwin Connelly snagged a 25-yard scoring strike and Pemberton’s third touchdown came on a 7-yard run.

“Football is an agonizing sport when you lose,” Rogers coach Frank Newsome said. “You’ve got a week to sit around and wait. It might have been good for us to play earlier. Four o’clock is different.

“I thought the kids handled it well. We’re pleased with the first league win. Last year at this time we were 0-1. This year we’re 1-0. So we’re moving in the right direction.”

Pemberton got Rogers moving quickly as he took quarterback Newsome’s handoff on a jet sweep right, got a block and raced 80 yards on the first play from scrimmage.

“Thanks to the line for that,” Pemberton said. “Everybody was out there executing. My fullback kicked out the cornerback, and I just took it to the house.”

When Rogers next got the ball, Max Newsome, the son of the head coach, connected with Ratcliff for a 40-yard gain on a fourth-and-7 play that put the ball at the West Warwick 7-yard line. Pemberton scampered left for the score, and Will Farley’s second of four conversion kicks gave the Vikings a 14-0 lead less than five minutes into the game.

“We wanted to come out hard after last week,” Max Newsome said. “We were excited for this. It feels good to be on the winning side.”

West Warwick started the second quarter with a seven-minute, 14-play drive that reached the Rogers 13-yard line. But Wizards quarterback Joe Dionne threw over the middle into the end zone, where defender Kalil Jones got a hand on the ball and teammate Max Newsome made the interception to keep the Vikings ahead 14-0.

“Kalil Jones makes a great play by tipping that and then Max makes the pick — but Kalil made the play,” coach Newsome said. “What’s good about that is now we’ve seen another team drive on us and then we make a play. You need those things in order to know you can do those things. That was definitely good.”

“I thought they were going to throw a drag and my teammate tipped it,” Max Newsome said. “Luckily I was there in the right spot and I just dove for it. It was good for our defense because we were getting a little tired out there. We just needed to get off the field and get our offense back out there.”

Two plays later, Max Newsome found Pemberton behind the defense and laid the ball in nicely for a 72-yard touchdown pass.

“It was a great pass,” Pemberton said. “The corner did a good job, but I had the advantage because I’m faster than him. That’s what it was. But everybody was executing. The line did a good job blocking the whole game.”

Rogers almost scored three touchdowns in three plays to close the first half. A wide open receiver dropped a sure touchdown pass on second down from the West Warwick 17-yard line. Kayvon Lockhart raced to the end zone on the next play, but it was negated by a penalty. Max Newsome then tossed a 25-yard touchdown pass to Connelly on the next play.

Another Rogers receiver dropped what would have been a TD pass in the second half before Max Newsome and Ratcliff teamed for a 19-yard touchdown play to close the game’s scoring in the third quarter. The quarterback executed the throws and, despite the drops, finished 5-for-8 passing for 181 yards and three touchdowns.

“I give the credit to my dad,” Max Newsome said. “He’s always told me I have to throw the ball different types of ways. I had a couple mistakes myself so I can’t blame them [for dropping them]. We had a good all-around team effort, though.”

Pemberton touched the ball four times and scored three touchdowns with 166 total yards. Jones ran 10 times for 58 yards and Ratcliff had three receptions for 74 yards. Rogers had 439 total yards of offense and the team's defense held West Warwick to 184 total yards.

“Joel Dupre and Jaden Paquin made some plays up front on defense,” Frank Newsome said. “Kayvon Lockhart does a lot for us and it goes unnoticed. I thought the defense played better. We’re still looking for more, but it was definitely better.

“We feel like we’re going to get better every week. We got better than last week on some things and now it’s on to next week.”

srogers@newportri.com

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